


These Once-Fallen Stars

by Karyra



Series: Group Hug Saga [1]
Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Because honestly group hugs are great, Fluff, Gen, More Group Hugs, So so much fluff, Wayfinder Trio
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-12
Updated: 2017-07-12
Packaged: 2018-12-01 07:08:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 989
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11481255
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Karyra/pseuds/Karyra
Summary: Hesitation, fear, and betrayal all sit in between the three of Terra, Ventus, and Aqua. To close the distance, a group hug was in order.





	These Once-Fallen Stars

Terra had hesitated. It wasn’t intentional, after years of being -Xehanort? Xemnas?- someone else who had actively hurt his friends he was afraid of his own hands.

What if he ended up choking Aqua again like in the Realm of Darkness? Or froze Ven with Xehanort’s magic?

Thus, he had hesitated. A whole foot forward then retracted. Faltering steps he’d made on his own power but he felt tired but full of energy. Like... the whole time he fought with Xehanort for control had made him stronger but the second he no longer had to push to seal him, no longer had to hold the villain back...

He felt so empty and he had done it all for the people in front of him. Ven... Aqua. They were both alive and fine. He knew about Ven, Xemnas was certain about where to find him but Aqua...

"Sorry...but I need some time alone."

He hadn’t really. They had always been stronger together. Better and smarter and stronger.

"But I was tricked. Xehanort set the whole thing up--all so he could awaken the darkness inside me. You were right, Aqua--and so was the Master. I did need to be watched. I went astray--but no more."

Aqua wouldn’t have fallen into darkness. She only did that literally. And still she fought for ten years by herself and she didn’t lose her body to a maniacal, evil, and conniving jerk who ended up killing their master.

Terra ended up taking the step forward again anyway, because he wasn’t going to let them be hurt any more.

Ven threw himself at Terra. He wasn’t going to cry.

Ven had been asleep for ten years and thus had changed the least. He noticed the darkness in Aqua’s eyes -the scars too- and the weariness of Terra. They had been through so so so much. Ven had slept.

And when he woke up, his two friends really had moved on without him. He had been so scared of it, and his worst nightmare had happened while he dreamed of Meow Wows and Necho Cats and distant places.

So he clung to Terra as though he would vanish again. If he was holding on this time maybe maybe maybe he’d stay or be able to stay with him. He wouldn’t be able to lose Terra if he held fast to the mountain of a man.

Ven had changed too, the frost had left scars in patterns on his arms and pieces of his armor were etched into his face and arm. Less visibly, Vanitas had left so many emotional scars. He had tried to kill Aqua. Even used Ven’s body to do it.

But he’d cling to his friends who had done so much to try and bring him back, even though one of them was evil it was still something to admire.

Maybe they hadn’t moved on without him, but so much had happened while he had been sleeping. Aqua said that she saw a spectre of him in the realm of darkness, and it was familiar. He remembered being tired. Not quite fully awake somewhere but not asleep. She had been calling out his name.

He wished that he had fought the sleep harder, somehow tried to wake up and talk to her. She needed that friend in the realm of darkness. She needed someone there that could talk to her.

Ven suppressed the tears and pulled himself deeper into Terra’s side.

Aqua finally joined the hug last.

She had been so hesitant. How many times did the darkness show her those two? Aqua lost count. She couldn’t trust her eyes. She was out of the realm of darkness but those old habits didn’t go away.

She held the boys close. Terra was too bad for one arm and Ven was just small enough that she could circle them fully, but she didn’t relax her tense hug until she was sure.

She knew every scar she had gained over the ten... eleven? Years. There had been so many, hadn’t there? Terra and Ven had never seen her like this. Healing magic had been useful, but at times the only thing she could do was cause it to scar over or she’d have to stop the bleeding.

The shades hadn’t stopped even after all those worlds returned to the light. She could only keep marching forward. She had been so tired.

Aqua wasn’t sure how to best hold actual people. How she gripped them in a hug. Touch had been so rare. And when it had been it had been from a shadow or heartless or darkness dwellers. So she held them too tight and just a hair’s twitch away from pulling her keyblade. She was so ready for something to happen that when Ven pried his arm out from between her and Terra to put it on her back she summoned it, but quickly dematerialized it.

“It’s okay now, Aqua,” Ven said.

Aqua cried, letting the emotion rolled over her for the first time in years.

“I’m so glad... you’re all right...” she sobbed. “That you both are all right!”

“Geez Aqua. You’re such a girl sometimes,” Terra joked. “But uh... I can’t breathe.”

The relaxed grip broke them all apart, but Aqua held their arms. Ven understood.

Terra used his free arm to try and cover up his tears. “Darn it Aqua, there’s something in my eyes now.”

“Those are called tears, Terra.” Ven teased.

“Hey kid I don’t see you not getting all misty eyed either,” Terra replied.

When they slept, Aqua was still holding their hands and they all slept in a tiny room like the children they were. They were all tired, as Aqua kept waking up to nightmares during the night, but both Ven and Terra never stopped smiling. Because...

That was the first night, in so many years, that they spent under the same stars.

**Author's Note:**

> Ended up writing this until midnight. Mistake or sudden strike of the muse? Either way I figured that if a group needed more hugs beyond just the Days Trio that it would definitely be the Wayfinder Trio.


End file.
